Interlocking mechanism for sectional furniture.



A. T. WEISS.

INTERLOCKING MECHANISM FOR SECTIONAL FURNITURE.

APPLICATION FILED JAN.26, 1914.

1i,%25,29& Patented May 8, 1917.

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A. T. WEiSS.-

INTERLOCKING MECHANISM FOR SECTHJNAL FURNITURE.

APPLICATION FILED umzs. 1914.

1,225,2949 I Patented May 8,1917.

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STATES PATENT ALBERT T. WEISS, OF ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO YAWMAN & ERBE MFG. C0 OF ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

INTERLOCKING MECHANISM FOR SECTIONAL FURNITURE.

Application filed January 26, 1914.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

' Be it known that I, ALBERT T. lVnrss, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Rochester, in the county of Monroe and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Interlocking Mechanism for Sectional Furniture; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this speci fication, and to the reference-numerals marked thereon.

My present invention relates to furniture and more particularly to drawer cabinets of the sectional type and it has for its object to provide a simple, cheap and convenient means for jointly looking or unlocking the drawers of all of the units when the latter are assembled together in superposed relationship, said means being preferably key controlled and located in one of the units so that all of the drawers may be locked with one look and key. A further object of the invention is to render the interlocking mechanism of such a character that the cooperating parts on the respective units will be concealed at the point of connection A and will automatically engage with each other incidentally to the act of properly superposing one sectional unit upon the other. To these and other ends the invention consists in certain improvements and combinations of parts all as will be hereinafter more fully described, the novel features being pointed out in the claim at the end of the specification.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a perspective view, taken from the rear with the rear walls removed, of a sectional cabinet provided with a drawer locking mechanism constructed in accordance with and illustrating one embodement of my invention;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary vertical section taken substantially on the line 22 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary vertical section taken substantially on the line 88 of Fig. 1, and

Fig. 4 is a vertical section taken through one of the units, complete, substantially on the line Jr-4t of Fig. 1.

Similar reference numerals throughout the several figures indicate the same parts.

Specification of Letters latent.

Patented May S, 1917.

Serial No. 814,405.

In the present instance, I have shown my invention embodied in an article of metallic furniture, for use in connection with which it has been more particularly designed and the particular sectional cabinet illustrated is the same as that disclosed and claimed in part in two of my companion applications filed herewith Serial Nos. 814,410? and 814,408. So far as the general structure is pertinent to the present ends, the cabinet comprises, a plurality of superposed units 1 each having a top wall 2, a bottom wall and a rear wall t (shown only in Figs. 2, 3 and They are all identical in structure so that they are universally interchangeable and this description will therefore be confined to the manner in which any two are superposed and their drawer locking mechanisms interlocked.

The top walls of the sections are surrounded by seats 5, raised therefrom which. seats receive the downwardly extending supporting flanges 6 on the bottoms of the sections and these flanges also extend below the bottom walls. The result is that a considerable space is left between the top wall of the bottom section and the bottom wall of the top section.

At the rear of each section but located inside of the back wall a is a vertically movable frame 8 comprising a central element 9 guided at 10 in the bottom wall of the section. The end rails 11 of this frame carry spring actuated latches 12 adapted to engage over the rear walls 13 of drawers 14 operat ing in the sections when the frame is in lowered position. I have shown each section designed to receive two drawers and as each latch 12 is beveled, as shown, and has a spring 1%, it will automatically lock the drawer whether the latter is in closed posi tion when the frame 8 carrying the latch is lowered or the drawer is subsequently moved to closed position.

On the top and bottom or horizontal rails of the frame are secured devices for interlocking all the frames of assembled sections for joint movement. These comprise in the present instance flat straps 15 at the top on either side of the central element 9 that are guided in the top wall 2 at 16 and have their extremities bent rearwardly at 17 to constitute projections that lie above said wall butbelow and forwardly of the rear seat- 6 while similar members 18 at the bottom their drawer latches 12 for joint movement in both directions, it being observed that they cooperate in the space between the adjacent walls of the sections where they are concealed from view and protected.

On one of the sections, the intermediate plate or member 9 is provided with a horizontal slot 21 that receives the eccentric end 22 of a rotary or oscillating actuating shaft extending from front to rear below the bottom wall 3 of that section and suitably journaled at 23 and 2 1. At its forward end the shaft is connected with the key controlled mechanism of a lock 25, the key slot 26 being shown formed in the projecting end of the rod. Thus, there is provided, under the control of asingle key, an actuating device in only one of the sections, the rotation of which moves all the frames 8 and looks or unlocks all of the latches 12.

While I have, in Fig. 1, shown the controlling mechanism on the bottom section, it may as well be carried by an intermediate sectionas shown in Fig. 3 or, in other words, the lowermost section of Fig. 1 could be placed between the other two instead of be neath them as will be readily seen.

The interlocking elements 15 and 18 are always protected by the projectingseats and supporting flanges 6 and 7 before the sections are assembled and are in positions to automatically engage with each other when this is done by merely bringing these parts (3 and 7 into proper relationship in the ordinary manner so that no particular attention need be paid to the interlocking mechanism during assembling. The members 15 and 18 further operate to guide the frames 8 and as the walls in which they are guided are brought very close to them they are strong and will not be bent out of shape through ordinary mishaps.

I claim as my invention:

The combination with two separable superposed sectional furniture units having drawers operating therein, the upper one provided with a marginal supporting flange projeeting'below its bottom wall and the other with a marginal seat on its upper wall occupied by said flange, of a vertically movable member on the rear of each unit provided with a drawer catch movable therewith into and out of locking position, means for detachably interlocking the members for joint movement comprising two cooperating members mounted on the movable members respectively, and guided respectively in the lower wall of the'upper member and the upper wall of the lower member so that they engage between said walls, and a key conirolleddevice for actuating one of the memers.

. ALBERT T. WEISS. Witnesses:

RUssELL B. GRIFFITH, H. E. STONEB AKER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the "Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. 0. 

